Unfiltered Story #301036

I’m a women working in a very male dominated industry, so I only have one other female college anywhere nearby. Thus when my period came much earlier then usual during the work day and I hadn’t yet refilled my tampon supply I was a little unsure of how to handle the situation. I pulled the one other female over to quietly ask her if she had anything I could borrow, but she she didn’t.

I was trying to be discrete but the man that shares the cubical with my female colleague apparently overheard me asking her.

Male colleague: Umm, sorry I didn’t mean to overhear, but it sounded like you needed a tampon?
me: “Umm yes, but I can just go buy something”
Male Colleague: “Well It’s not a tampon, but if you want I have a softcup you can borrow.”

With that he reaches into his back pocket and brings out a something flat in a bright purple wrapper that, for some bizarre reason, I can’t help but think looks like a condom wrapper if the condom was twice the size it needed to be.

Me: “Umm, thank you but I don’t know what that is”
Man: “It’s for periods, but unlike a tampon it’s kind of a cup that once you put it in expands to hold itself in place and catches everything. There supposedly really intuitive to figure out how to insert. You are welcome to have it if you want.”
Female colleague: “You just happen to have one in your pocket?
Man: “Umm, well would you believe that I use to be a boy scout and I just took the whole ‘always be prepared’ thing to an extreme?”
female colleague: “Honestly I think it would be more believable you would be carrying around a tampon if you use to be in the girl scouts”
Man: “no sorry, as delicious as being a brownie sounds I never got that honor. Woe is me.”

At my colleague’s comment about girl scouts I suddenly realized she could be right, if he was a trans man he would still potentially need to keep something for a period. Not wanting to embarrass him, or out him to the office, I decided to try to cut the conversation off quickly.

Me: “Well thank you I’ll try it. how much did it cost you?
Him: “for just one cup? it’s probably like 50 cents or something. That’s allot of money, but I think I can just barely manage without your repaying me. It’s going to bankrupt me though!”
Me: “oh. okay thank you”
Him: “oh for the record if it’s at all uncomfortable after you insert it that usually means you haven’t inserted it far enough back.”

The cup was an interesting design. I think I’ll stick to tampons in the future, but it did it’s job well enough, and it saved me allot of hassle trying to figure out where to get a tampon at work so I appreciated it. I was worried about the man taking offense to my colleges joke about girl scouts though, so I caught him on his way out.

Me: “hey I just wanted to thank you for earlier today.”
Him: “oh no problem, it really isn’t that big a deal. Glad I could help.”
Me: “I hope we didn’t offend you or anything.”
Him: “Huh? why would I be offended?”
Me: “Well, you know, making a big deal about your having something for a period.
Him: “oh, nah, I’d probably tease a man for randomly carrying a softcup around too.”
Me: “Oh good, I was afraid that girl scouts joke was too much. Umm, for the record I’m supportive of everyone if you ever want someone to talk with”
Him: “well um, thank you I suppose? But I feel like I’m missing something here…”

He is looking, and sounding, completely baffled by me. Now I’m worried I’d misinterpreted the whole situation, but he is looking at me with a look that says he isn’t going to be happy unless I clarify what I was talking about. This in turn causes me to get a little flustered.

Me: “well I didn’t mean anything, just I figured if you had a tampon it was because you needed one for…never mind I’m sorry ignore me”
Him: “umm, okay I suppose? but now I’m really curious why you would think I would need a softcup.”

This time rather then sounding confused he sounds honestly interested. It’s almost as if he is daring me to guess the reason he had the cup.

Me: “well I thought maybe for, you know umm gender reasons?”

He looks at me in confusion for a second before I can see light dawning on him.

Him: “Oh! yeah I guess that does make allot of sense now that I think of it. Yeah no sorry I’m afraid I’m boringly cis, but I’m glad to know you are supportive of those that aren’t. Thanks for trying to support me anyways.
Me: “Oh sorry”
Him: “nothing to be sorry for. Like I said I appreciate you’re being supportive in general and that really is a logical conclusion I suppose.
Me: “If that wasn’t it then mind if I ask why you had a cup in your pocket?”
Him: “well, I had grabbed one from my car a few days ago and slipped it in my pocket in case a women needed one, but she didn’t. and since I just transfer everything in my pockets from one pair of pants to another after my shower it’s just kind of piggy backed along ever since.
Me: “You keep a pack in your car?”
Him: “yeah, I’m a strange one.”
Me: “I take it your not planning to tell me why then?”
Him: “not if you haven’t already guessed it sorry. It’s way more fun to keep you in suspense.”
Me: “how will I know if I had guessed it right without a hint?”
Him: “well, lets just say it’s sort of volunteer related. It’s kind of a non-traditional thing though. I try not to go into any more details at work since allot of people leap to conclusions when they hear what I do and it takes too long to correct them. Most give me way too much credit for it, but a few assume the worse. One women a few contracts ago freaked out when she learned about it, I ended up leaving that contract rather then trying to deal with her, so now I promised my company not to really talk about it at work, even though personally I’d rather be open about it all.”
Me: “Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to pry”
Him: “oh it’s fine, like I said if I had it my way I’d be more open. So long as you promise not to go telling everyone else Your welcome to keep trying to guess in the unlikely event you figure it out. Otherwise look me up whenever one of us is changing contracts and I’ll tell you the truth before we split ways.

I’ve sense become something of friends with the man. Our jobs are separate enough that we don’t have that many occasion to chat for long, but he has a decent sense of humor and seems a pretty nice guy so I’ll visit with him for a little bit whenever we run into each other in the halls. However, I still haven’t figured out the mystery of why he would keep a softcup around for ‘volunteer reasons’. He insists that once I’ve guessed it should be obvious. Personally part of me can’t wait until one of us changes contracts just to have the mystery finally solved.